A visit to Eugene, Ore., makes it very easy to understand why
Mike Bellotti has been able to turn the Oregon football program
into a perennial top-25 team.
With all due respect to his talents as a coach, Bellotti has
gotten some help from a very generous alumnus with very deep
pockets. Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight has donated
hundreds of millions of dollars, literally, to various aspects of
Oregon, a lot of which has been pumped into the athletic
department.
Knight, who earned his accounting degree from the institution in
1959 before getting his MBA from Stanford in 1962, created Nike
with former Oregon track and field coach Bill Bowerman.
It was Bowerman, by pouring rubber into a homely waffle-maker,
who invented the crisscross pattern on the sole of your shoe.
When you cross the mighty Willamette River and get a glimpse of
Autzen Stadium, it is hard to believe that Oregon’s home
field is only a college pad.
The 2002 renovations to Autzen added luxury boxes and expanded
seating areas. It also puts the crowd in close proximity to the
field, which accounts for the thumping noise.
Although the stadium carries Thomas J. Autzen’s namesake,
it was Knight who forked over $50 million to complete the
renovations.
It was also Knight who signed the checks for the construction of
the Mashofsky Center, the indoor practice facility that makes other
schools’ athletic budget seem laughable.
The Ducks are practicing in a facility that is more polished
than UCLA’s Rose Bowl or California’s Memorial
Stadium.
Following Oregon’s 30-20 win over UCLA, there were a lot
of grumbles from the Bruin fan base that the game was very
symbolic.
Those fans argue that UCLA should be a better program than
Oregon year after year, citing the talented recruiting base, the
appeal of the country’s second-largest market and a superior
academic institution to boot.
Those fans, however well-intentioned, are myopic. Just look at
the infrastructure that Bellotti has to work with, and compare that
with Karl Dorrell’s situation. It’s not just about the
new facilities. There’s a lot of money and coerced favors
that are being exchanged behind closed doors.
When Joey Harrington was about ready to start his senior year at
Oregon, a massive poster of him was plastered across Times Square
in New York City. It read “Joey Heisman.” That’s
how Oregon kicks off a Heisman campaign.
In all fairness to Knight, he has donated large sums of money to
the academic side of Oregon. But it’s his devotion to the
athletic department that has helped attract students.
In contrast, it took years of cutting through red tape for
Dorrell to finally get rubberized field turf put down on Spaulding
Field.
How many football or basketball recruits would be swayed by the
unlimited funds of Oregon’s athletic department?
How many of those same recruits get back from Eugene and then
take a look at the Rose Bowl and scratch their heads?
This isn’t a slight toward UCLA athletics, or even a
defense of the Dorrell program, it is just a fact that needs to be
understood by UCLA sports fans because it doesn’t just
pertain to football. USC has opened up its new Galen Center this
year, while Pauley Pavilion is in dire need of some
renovations.
Some will point to Pete Carroll’s revival of the USC
football program, but that’s a unique situation. It has the
tradition. It’s a sleeping giant. USC football compares more
favorably to UCLA basketball in that regard.
Most college football programs reflect the standards that their
alumni hold them to.
But sometimes it’s hard to raise expectations without a
pile of money to prop up a program.